Abstract
UNTIL recently, engineers considered that when both water- and fuel-power were available, then it was best to develop all the water-power first and then use steam as an auxiliary source of power. In designing many recent power stations this procedure has almost been reversed. The steam station is built first, the overhead costs being much cheaper ; then when the load gets large and it would otherwise be necessary to provide reserve generators and equipment to take the main load, a beginning is made with the water-power station, which is mainly used to help with the peak load, and so avoids the necessity of purchasing reserve generators. In the preliminary report published in 1934 of the National Resources Board, set up by the United States Government, it is stated that “the great technical advantage of water-power plants is that they can be turned on for a few hours' work and then turned off again without much loss”. In the present technical regime, their function is mainly that of a supplementary source, used to carry peak loads for brief periods. During the rest of the time the load is carried by the more economical fuel burners. In the August number of the BEAMA journal, H. E. M. Kensit points out that quite small water-power stations possessing good 'pondage' or moderate storage facilities can be economically developed to several times their continuous capacity in order to take the peak loads of fuel power systems. In Great Britain the Water Power Sources Committee reported in 1921 that there were 250,000 kilowatts of continuous power available. The modern view is that where small water-powers are used, they should be 'over-developed' by providing reservoirs so that they could take both the base loads and the peak loads. There are several electric-power schemes in America which take full advantage of the utility of the storage capacity of water-power in reservoirs when combined with steam stations.
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Economic Use of Water-Power. Nature 142, 566–567 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/142566c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/142566c0